CAUTION When Building a Home in Costa Rica!
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- Опубликовано: 15 сен 2024
- If you are thinking of building a home in Costa Rica, we have some important tips to share with you (to save you a huge headache)!
#CostaRica #HomeBuilding #LivinginCostaRica #Guanacaste
You really do have to be in the country and visit your build as often as you can. What really helped us with our first build was that we found an excellent architect who in turn recommended us an excellent builder that he always works with. In fact it was that builder that built the architect’s house. We then met the builder and had a look at the houses he was busy with at that time, so we got to see his work. Also we got a feel for his character which is important. We wanted to keep a handle on expenses so we structured the contract such that we would buy the materials ourselves and then every week we would pay the builder a portion of his fee. I reserved 10% as a holdback to be paid once the snag list had been fixed. The original time frame was 12 weeks but it stretched to 14 because I expanded the scope of work since I was so happy with our guy’s work. The house should go on the market in the next two weeks. It’s an 85 square metre, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom (en suite) house with 15 foot ceilings at the front of the house which then slope to 9 feet at the back. The point is, your house shouldn’t take you a year to build.
Thanks. Great, small tips.
Great video. We made the mistake to build from out of the country. Yes, the construction took longer & that's fine. It took year or so to complete the house & only after a month the floors & walls had cracks everywhere. The walls & floors are concrete with a sealer. Construction company says it's normal to have big cracks. Now they are ignoring us. We thought Costa Rica had more honest people in construction. We were wrong!!
wow, and not one of these contractor people ever get taken to court
True @@dougdileo4727
Sorry you had a bad experience too. I just always like to give a word of caution to never, ever pay up front to any builder!
All you say is so true. I had a horrible experience building here and im a contractor in the states. So if it happened to me it can happen to anyone as this video clearly states
I'm so glad I follow you me and my family are thinking of moving there America is getting to crazy
I hope our videos are helpful to you!
Great video,even though I was born in San Jose, I decided to build my home in Margaritaville,Daytona Beach,Florida,lots of luck to you and your family 🐬🏄🏻♂️🌊🌴❤️
Thank you! 😀
Thanks for this!!
you are so right....even my wife's cousin who is also a tica got taken by a contractor for $8,000 to build out a extra bedroom on side of her house..this was in Sarchi about 7-8 yrs ago...they have a hectare and all her sisters and brother have a house on it and yet this theft still occurs......crazy
Thank you so much for helping us all with this information!
It's my pleasure!
Mention a doubling dollar delay penalty in your building contract. Means 1 day delay penalty is 1 usd 2nd day 2 usd third day 4 usd fourth day 8 usd fifth day 8 usd 6th day 16 usd and so on just calculate a 20 day delay with cost them nearly half a million dollars of penalty just calculate 😊 cheers. :)
Thank you for sharing this!!!
My pleasure, I don't want to see other people go through these challenges 🙂
Great tips! Thank you.
Hola, we are in the process of building our home in Villa Real. It has been going along great so far. We do not live there at the moment but you are 100% correct on having some there to manage for you. Our manager has been awesome and don't think we could be doing it without her. We are very excited about our project. If anyone is looking for a builder ours has been fantastic and I would share there info with you.
Hello, I would like to know the area and the builder, thanks
Is that Villa Real Santa Ana?
@jackdempsey2241
That sounds great, could you share the name of her please?
Thanks for sharing your experience! When you were searching for your lot and when your home was being built, how long did you and your family rent a long term rental for? My husband and I don’t have kids yet but we do have 3 cats and a dog and wondering if we’d have luck renting while taking our time selecting a lot and building (since being in a rush is not la clave 😂). Also, can you share how much your lot was ? Or a range? I assume it varies from town to town and prices will fluctuate but to have an idea of what your size lots are going for + the building estimate you shared. Can you pay in cash for the lot and then take out building loan in the US for building or is all cash the way to go? Thanks in advance! ❤
Hi there! We could not find a super long term rental, we rented one place for 6 months and a different place for another 6 months. The entire lot cost about $90,000 USD, but we divided up the area for the back to be our property, and separated 3 small lots on the road to sell at some point. We are 300 meters from the beach, and the land is titled (not concession), so that affects the price for sure.
You can get rentals, no problem
You can pay cash for land. You need a lawyer and a separate escrow company because lawyers are not trusted with money
Escrow need references from your bank and and statements
Builders just do any old thing there, standards of building are an absolute shocker
Take your time
Go to the builders jobs that he is doing to see what his work is like
Costa Ricans think it is a great laugh to take advantage of foreigners, shame on them
They lie about how long anything takes - you can tripple or even more than that, in terms of the time they will take to build
I have been to the country. Except the nature and coffee, don’t see anything worthwhile for me to settle down for the rest of my life. Good luck with your journey there!
Good. We don't want you here anyways. Doesn't seem like you'll have anything to offer this beautiful country!! ✌🏾
I live in Monteverde and I CONSTANTLY see houses going up in no time at all! Like finished in 4-6 weeks. But the story is different for extranjeros, which I get. Can you tell me more about how you do your music teaching gig? Or do you have a video on that? I'm currently doing a full time teaching job but I only make 550,000 colones per month (and only pays 10 months/year) but the cost of living is 2-3 times that so I'm struggling. I am a violinist and thought I could play weddings here but they don't hold many in Monteverde, so I'm thinking of teaching strings and am looking for some advice. I speak very basic Spanish having moved here with ZERO. Thanks for any help!
All ages would like to learn a stringed instrument, from children through to seniors. Its all about doing as much free advertising as you can then build from there.
thnx for sharing... i'm looking to build in the near future can you recommend your builder?
Hey there! Thank you for your information. Did you do an Anteproyecto contract with the architect before the building contract? And for sure never pay anything in advance in CR!
Were are buildimg in
Great videos. However it’s very repetitive. Maybe Summarize it more.
Hi, so who did you end up using as a builder, and who do you not recommend?
Thank you
Our builder was Phil VanBuren. He fled the country after stealing over $30,000 from us and not completing the project (which seems to be a common problem here). Cody Qualls in Playa Negra area is wonderful, as is Giovanni with Tatanka here in Junquillal is also reputable.
A lot of these issues happen to gringos here because they choose to do everything through other gringos that don’t know shirt… just because they showed up here a few years back like they discovered the place and speak broken Spanish, which btw, you yourself wouldn’t notice because you don’t speak a word yourself… and I don’t mean the nice lady who made this video, whom I don’t know…. I mean in general… just like she easily generalizes about C.R….
I actually speak Spanish every single day ☺ The only way to learn, is to practice. I'm just sharing our experience and observations from the last 2 years of living here. You do make a good point that a lot of people who move here from the U.S., Canada and Europe tend to use builders that are also from their home countries -- however -- we have been wronged by Tico and Gringo alike, it's not solely one group or the other. There are thieves and crooks everywhere in the world from all nationalities.
I've built multiple homes in Costa Rica, while i wasn't there. Things went well and smooth. She has a lot of good tips, but it's basic knowledge. She's leaving a lot of other things out that could be a problem, even for her. Even though she's been there 2 years, they're still hidden laws where you can lose your land years after you build because of wrongful, zoning, etc. So although she's giving you good tips, please don't take everything she's saying as gospel. She's missing a lot of information and got some things wrong.
Thanks for sharing your experience! That's all I'm doing here on my channel as well. We all have different viewpoints and experiences to share. I always invite everyone to read and learn as much as they can, because none of us know everything 😃